The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, by
Louis de Rougemont

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Title: The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont
as told by Himself

Author: Louis de Rougemont

Release Date: April 17, 2007 [eBook #1194]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF LOUIS DE
ROUGEMONT***

Transcribed from the 1899 George Newnes edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

THE ADVENTURES OF
LOUIS DE ROUGEMONT
As Told by Himself

With Forty-six Illustrations

London
George Newnes, Limited
Southampton Street, Strand
1899

[_All rights reserved_]

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press

DEDICATION

_To my Devoted Wife_,

YAMBA,

_The Noblest Work of the Creator_,
A GOOD WOMAN,

_And to her People_, _my True and Streadfast Friends_,
_who never wavered in their confidence or_
_attachment_, _and to whom I owe the_
_Preservation of my Life_,

THIS WORK

_Is gratefully Dedicated_

CHAPTER I

Early life--Leaving home--I meet Jensen--I go pearling--Daily
routine--Submarine beauties--A fortune in pearls--Seized by an
octopus--Shark-killing extraordinary--Trading with the natives--Impending
trouble--Preparing for the attack--Baffling the savages.

I was born in or near Paris, in the year 1844. My father was a fairly
prosperous man of business--a general merchant, to be precise, who dealt
largely in shoes; but when I was about ten years old, my mother, in
consequence of certain domestic differences, took me to live with her at
Montreux, and other places in Switzerland, where I was educated. I
visited many of the towns near Montreux, including Lausanne, Geneva,
Neufchatel, &c. The whole of the time I was at school I mixed
extensively with English boys on account of their language and sports,
both of which attracted me.

Boys soon begin to display their bent, and mine, curiously enough, was in
the direction of geology. I was constantly bringing home pieces of stone
and minerals picked up in the streets and on the mountains, and asking
questions about their origin and history. My d